Opening batsmen shows his class against Gloucester for Hampshire but lacked
urgency when rotating the strike for England

At the top of the agenda for England’s next head coach: what to do about Michael Carberry, who contributed an unbeaten century to Hampshire’s eight-wicket win over Gloucestershire?

Without doubt he was poorly treated towards the end of the tour of Australia, by being omitted completely from the 50-over and 20-over teams. It was Carberry’s 63 in Cardiff that set up England’s sole victory in the one-day series last September, when Mitchell Johnson was already red-hot.

And when injuries to Joe Root and Luke Wright forced changes in England’s World T20 squad, they were replaced by Ian Bell and Craig Kieswetter. England’s most successful T20 batsman of last summer was never given a chance in the line-up which Stuart Broad labelled "scary" – and it was, for England’s own supporters.

There was so much to admire about Carberry’s batting in the last Ashes series. Joe Root made his 87 in the Adelaide Test, Alastair Cook got his head clear enough to make three 50s but averaged 24 overall, Kevin Pietersen had a fine game at Melbourne if nowhere else, Ian Bell flattered at Adelaide and Perth. But if anyone came close to standing out from the wreckage, it was the man who faced – and survived – more balls than anybody else on the England side.

Carberry ticked so many of the boxes. First of all for an opening bat, he was excellent at leaving the ball alone. Head still, judging the line so quickly, bat out of harm’s way, 10 out of 10.

He also has the appetite to bat all day and make big scores. This may not have been apparent, funnily enough, in the Ashes series – but it was on that false dawn of a day in Hobart, when Cook and Carberry batted through to scores of 150-plus each, without losing a wicket against Australia A.

He worked so hard at his game too. First into the nets every morning, such is his work ethic. Even on that hot first morning in Brisbane, when anything seemed possible except 5-0 to Australia, he was tiring out Andy Flower with throw-downs in the nets before the start. When he finally finished, and Flower shook his hand, it was something like a seal of approval.

In his recent interview with The Guardian, when he hinted at the anger and frustration at being omitted from England’s limited-overs sides, Carberry recalled how some of the Australians had congratulated him on soaking up so much pressure during the Tests. It was at the Sydney Cricket Ground, when the players had drinks together after the series, and one has no reason to doubt his account.

But here’s a thing, as Americans like to say: Carberry would not have had so much pressure to soak up if he had rotated the strike more. Sure, he was steadfast to the end: in England’s last apology of an innings in Sydney, when their bizarrely selected team was bowled out in 31.4 overs, Carberry was not only top-scorer with 43 but was the only one to last more than 36 balls, before top-edging an uppercut to the keeper.

Rotating the strike dissipates the pressure instead of letting it grow and grow. It was the same in Australia as it was on Monday morning when Carberry batted against Gloucestershire in his first innings at Bristol and scored 27.

Carberry put away the bad balls with complete efficiency, some from a nervy left-arm debutant, Matt Taylor, who settled down later to take five wickets. He put the pressure on Taylor all right.

But when Taylor was replaced by the more experienced left-arm swing bowler David Payne, Carberry did not rotate the strike and put pressure on himself. After some blocking, he reacted by going for a big drive and missing, then went after the next ball and was caught behind.

It is all very well if you are Virender Sehwag or Matthew Hayden playing most of your Tests on hard pitches: they can ignore quick singles and just whack boundaries. But Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook have shown how England’s left-handed openers can squirrel away singles by dabbing into the gap at midwicket, between square-leg and mid-on.

It would have been nice to see, as a consequence of the Ashes tour, Carberry becoming more urgent in his backing up – a critical part of rotating the strike. He would have been run out in the Adelaide Test by a direct hit after a bad, panicky call by Root in the last over of day two, and Carberry’s Test-best of 60 would have been stillborn at 20. But he did not help himself with his minimalist approach to backing up.

No sign of improvement this week, I’m afraid. Just two half-paces as the bowler delivers, when he could be at least a couple of feet further down the pitch – with time to ground his bat if the striker straight-drives and the bowler deflects.

A small point – or an indication of an unwillingness, at the age of 33, to change?

For certain, to launch their new era, England need batsmen who are far more lively in their running between the wickets than they were last winter. Even Root, who like Jonny Bairstow was a superb runner when he came into the England side, has been ground down by senior colleagues who are less than alert.

If you were going to write down one particular attribute of Sam Robson, who added a second-innings 41* to his 163 against Nottinghamshire, it would be his keenness to learn. So Carberry would not be my first choice as Cook’s Test opening partner, but if Root’s thumb has not mended, or Jonathan Trott is being troubled by bouncers, he should head the list of reserves.